http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=16176 
An addict to collecting videogames, that is. It wasn't always this way; once upon a time I would only get one game at a time and enjoy it until it was entirely completed before I even thought of going after another. Around 4 years ago I must have caught some sort of bug.
I think it was the Virtual Boy; I had always wanted one as a kid, but never did get one because they were just too expensive at the time. On a whim, after the system had randomly popped into my head, I decided to check around and see how much one went for. While perusing the listings on eBay I realized just how cheap it now was and bought one purely for the novel value.
The trend continued from there. Shortly thereafter I was back on eBay looking to see what some of the other gaming stuff out there costs, essentially all the stuff I had missed as a kid. I found a Dreamcast lot and paid around $30 for the system, a full set of controllers, a couple VMUs, and five or so decent games. Needless to say, this wasn't the last transaction I made on eBay. The purchases began flowing as I realized I could experience everything I had once missed by avoiding a few new game purchases. It didn't take long to realize that I was amassing quite the stockpile of videogames. At some point, unconsciously I must have decided that I needed to continue getting everything and anything I could find. I started hitting up local stores for any classic titles that were cheap.
As that list of classics began to dwindle, I started picking up anything that I could find that was reasonably cheap in comparison to eBay listings. All of my auction watching helped me build an internal database of the average cost of games. Typically if I could find a game at a brick and mortar store that was under the average eBay price I would buy it.
Eventually I discovered one of my favorite places in the world, Cheap Ass Gamer. These days, Cheap Ass Gamer helps alert me of every sale existent, the best of which are clearance game deals. Clearance deals often provide me with games for current generation systems for under $10. Just yesterday I picked up Virtua Tennis 3 on the Playstation 3 and Bullet Witch for the Xbox 360 for less than $5 each.
The funny thing is, I don't and can't conceivably play all of the games I now buy. On a daily basis there is just too much to do, and there are definitely too many games to play (at the time of this posting I have 711 games spanning 24 systems). I don't let this stop me though; I hope one day I can really enjoy everything that I've collected, but even if I don't, I like knowing that at any time I can play just about anything good that any given system has offered up.
Are there any readers out there as obsessed as I am with collecting games, accessories, systems and swag? What got you into game collecting and do you like to collect anything in particular? What are your thoughts on digital distribution and the future of collecting games? Let us know in the talkback thread.
Topic: Hello, My Name is Nick … and I'm an Addict (Read 18214 times)
